508 
ON THE MALTS DRACUNCULUS, 
lingered on to the twentieth. 1 saw one case in a mule. The 
animal lived, but he did not begin to amend until the seventh 
day. I have not had an opportunity to witness its usual dura- 
tion in the ass ; but it does strike me that the disease here pro- 
ceeded with an extraordinary rapidity, and only to be accounted 
for by the combined power of the two causes to which I have 
alluded. 
The counter-irritation, applied, as some may imagine, with a 
reckless hand, did not appear to have had the slightest effect in 
lulling the nervous excitation. In another case, however, I should 
be disposed to put it once more fairly to the test ; for it had two 
enemies to contend with here, and had not a fair chance. 
ON THE MAL1S DRACUNCULUS, OR GUINEA-WORM. 
By C. Chisholm, M.D. 
Messrs. Editeurs, 
Conceiving that the following paper on the Malts Dracunculus , 
or Guinea-Worm , by C. Chisholm, M.D. F.R.S., &c., extracted 
from the Edinburgh and Surgical Journal for April 1, 1815, 
which I accidentally met with, would be interesting to the pro- 
fession, particularly that part connected with the Indian service, 
it will need no apology on my part for forwarding it for insertion 
in your interesting periodical. 
I remain. Gentlemen, 
Yours, &c., 
Tho. Mayer, Sen., V.S. 
Dr. Chisholm says, “ in the introductory part of my 
Essay on the Malignant Pestilential Fever, I have given the out- 
lines of the history of Dracunculus, as far as it seemed necessary 
to establish the fact of its being an endemic, and, during a cer- 
tain portion of the year, an epidemic disease in the island of 
Grenada ; and not, as was formerly and pretty generally believed, 
in the West India islands at least, always foreign, and confined to 
the natives of Africa, imported into these islands. This short intro- 
ductory notice was, I believe, deemed satisfactory so far as it went; 
but it gave rise to a wish among some medical and philosophical 
friends, to have that notice of this singular animal in a more 
detailed form. This wish was expressed immediately after the 
publication of the first edition of the Essay, in 1794. Since then 
